SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 129 
end of the Rocky Mountains, the general axis of uplift of which extends 
to El Paso, together with wide plateau areas in large part higher than 
5,000 feet above sea level. The portion east of the Rio Grande was 
included in the Republic of Texas, and for relinquishing it and some 
other territory in 1850 Texas received $10,000,000. The rest of the 
State was acquired by the Mexican War and the Gadsden Purchase. 
(See p. 150.) 
New Mexico was the most highly valued of the Spanish possessions 
in this country. It was first visited ® by Friar Marcos de Niza, 
accompanied by the negro slave Estevan, in 1539, in their trip to the 
vicinity of the Indian pueblo of Zufi, in search for the fabulous “Seven 
Cities of Cibola.” In the following year Niza led Coronado to the 
Zuni villages, where they arrived July 10. Later the Coronado 
expedition crossed the northern part of the State on a journey to 
Quivira. The first attempt at colonization was made at the mouth of 
When first organized as a Territory of the United States in 1850, 
New Mexico included the area which later became Arizona. It was 
given statehood in 1912. Its population in 1930 was 423,317 and the 
density of population 3% persons to the square mile, having much 
more than doubled since 1890. More than half of the population are 
“Mexicans,” a people consisting largely of descendants of Mexican 
settlers of long ago, together with many recent immigrants from 
Mexico, mostly of the peon class and largely of Indian origin. 
“It seems probable that Cabeza de; ™Gamio, Manuel, Sources and dis- 
Vaca may have reached the general | tribution of Mexican immigration into 
locality of El Paso late in 1535, but he the United States, Mexico, 1930. 
ascended the Rio Grande and crossed Mexi immi 
southwestern New Mexico on the way grants: Foreign Affairs, vol. 8, pp. 
to Culiacén, in Mexico (Bolton, Sauer, | 99-107, 1929, 
and R. T. Hill), 
